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Shigematsu Sōiku was born in the midst of World War II in the town of Shimizu. First son of Shigematsu Kijū (重松 輝宗?, June 5, 1915 –), a Zen priest and accomplished calligrapher, he acquired the basic knowledge and experience of Zen life from his father. Notably, Kijū Shigematsu was also one of the teachers of Robert AitkenRōshi, during the latter's training at Engaku-ji monastery.[2]

Shigematsu's pioneering translation of the two most important Japanese collections of capping phrases or jakugo in Japanese - Zenrin Kushū 禅林句集 (tr. as A Zen Forest, Sayings of the Masters)[3] and Zenrin Segoshū 禅林世語集 (tr. as A Zen Harvest, Japanese Folk Zen Sayings)[4] - is acknowledged as the magnum opus of contemporary English-speaking Zen world. In addition, he also translated poetry and sermons of Musō Soseki[5] and Zen haiku by Natsume Sōseki.[6]

Based on the idea of anthologizing "worldly sayings" – insight-provoking expressions of regular people – collected in the above-mentioned second anthology, Zenrin Segoshū, Shigematsu's current project concentrates on creation of an anthology of Zen sayings from the native English literary and other sources. Parts of it have already been published by Shizuoka University's Studies in Humanities, e.g. "Zen Sayings" from R.W. Emerson (1985), Henry D. Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, etc.[7]

In addition to his Japanese - English translations of Zen poetry, Shigematsu Sōiku is a poet composing free verse in Japanese. A poem found in the recently published sixth volume of Shigematsu's poetry reads: